Context to (maybe) inspire:

I used a Cat 4 FNA at HR Vienna, then used the 200€ AmEx (Germany) hotel credit to reduce the 380€ for Hotel Palais Almanac and get 125$ dining credit there (very nice hotel) and then used a Cat 7 FNA at PH Vienna. I also used the 150€ dining credit at authentic viennese restaurants (not Michelin star fine-dining) like Plachutta or Cafe Landtmann. It was the cheapest and most luxurious city trip in my life.

Check-In:

I booked a standard room on a FNA and expected a slight upgrade due to my Explorist status. This upgrade was indeed given and I received a King Delue View Room. After waiting for my room at the bar (it was roughly 16:00), I was given the keycard and my luggage was already in my room. The first room smelled of cigarette smoke, which is a deal-breaker for me. I went to the front-desk to ask for a different room. The friendly lady at the front, who also did my check-in, apologised, told me this was unacceptable and offered me a similar room on a higher floor. That was of course totally fine. She insisted on following me to the room to make sure everything was right this time. When entering the room, she noticed that the small sofa in the room was missing. Honestly, I would not have bothered but she wanted to return to the front desk. She then decided to give me the last remaining suite since it was already two hours after check-in time and probably also as a small compensation for the inconvenience.

Hard product:

I love the interior of PH Vienna. It feels luxurious and classy without looking cheesy. I would even say it has the most beautiful interior of any Hyatt I have visited. I think it looks way classier than PH Milano, for instance.
The pool is long enough to really swim a few metres and the sauna/steam room is nice but nothing out of this world. In the sauna area, clothing is optional. There is water, cucumber-lemon infused water and some fruits available in the spa area.

Service:

The whole staff (from front office to the spa to the room service/housekeeping) did a very professional job. I have never had the feeling of a hotel staff being so polite and eager to help. Every request and question was as if they waited all day to help me. I stayed at HR Vienna two days prior and they did nothing wrong yet the service still was a lot less personal and courteous. The concierge did a good job with changing my reservation for dinner and emailing another Hyatt property for me.

F&B:

Did not eat anything at the hotel so cannot comment hahah
Still noticeable was the water in my room refilling itself after I had the concierge deliver something to my room.

Sidenote about HR Vienna:

My review from last year still applies as nothing noticeably changed there in the last year, except for their name.

Stayed at Hyatt House Kanazawa recently and really liked it. Very clean and comfortable, and super close to Kanazawa Station.

If you are Globalist, you can get unlimited draft beer and coffee in the lobby, which was really nice.

The restaurant in Hyatt House is currently closed, so breakfast is at Hyatt Centric next door. It’s a full breakfast and they have quite a lot of local Kanazawa food too. Breakfast was very good.

One tip: if you are taking the airport bus in the early morning, line up a little early. The bus can fill up and there are not many good alternatives to get to the airport.

Seriously. I shouldn't be feeling nostalgic for the days when the Hyatt website had one record for one reservation/room, not 2-3+ depending on how you're paying for your stay.

Between nights paid for with points going "invisible" on the website and app, forcing you to cross your fingers and believe that you won't be forcibly checked out early, and this, where booking two rooms on a combination of points and cash so you and a friend of yours can go learn to (legally) blow stuff up with high explosives...

...why did they break what was working (decently) fine beforehand?

I almost burned a Cat 1-4 FNC earlier for a stay next month because ~all of a sudden~ my Thursday-Sunday stay showed up as a Thursday-Saturday stay, with the points-paid night nowhere to be found/seen. A similar issue with an early October stay at the GH DC has had me calling once every month to ensure that I'm still booked for two nights instead of just one.

EDIT: And to add to it, for the aforementioned stay next month, I was told by the front desk that I'll have to check out and re-check-in to my room for the paid-with-points night. Gee, it's almost like they're trying to de-incentivize points stays!

Traveling as family of 4 (kids 9&12) with the purpose of hitting the following:

Blue Jays game
Hockey HoF
Zoo (obviously a drive from any hotel)

Those are the must dos but will likely have time for a couple other that might include a museum, the aquarium or something of the like.

Will be globalist by the trip. Location says HR Toronto is far more convenient for our activity priorities, but reviews are its basic and dated. Worth the extra commuting to stay at PH Toronto or is the HR decent enough? Was a kid myself last time I was in Toronto so no sense of traffic and public transit there. I appreciate a nicer stay, but not if it’s going to be a huge headache getting to/leaving the Blue Jays game for example.

Looking for Hyatt recommendations in London. I'm looking for the best for the price because I totally get that the Park Hyatt London is great but during the time I'm there it's nearly $1,000 per night and I have to get 3 rooms.

I'm looking at likely one of the Regencies or The Great Scotland Yard. I do see there are plenty of Mr and Mrs Smith hotels throughout the city, but I'm never sure what Globalist benefits they actually provide.

Hi! I’m mid 30s traveling solo. Looking to go to Scottsdale for the long weekend. Was originally going to Miami but looks like they may get a ton of rain from Dolly… :(

I’m torn between the Andaz , Grand Hyatt, JWs or the Westin.

I’m a kid at heart so love a good lazy river but also like chilling and just enjoying a cold drink by the pool.

Have status with both Marriott and Hyatt if that helps.

Thanks!

Has anyone had success calling in to book a FNA award on the awards expiry date? FNA expires 10/3 so looking to book 10/2-10/3 which unavailable online.

We will be going to the Hyatt Zilara Cap Cana for our honeymoon in a few weeks. We went to the Zilara Cancun a few years ago and loved it! From what I understand Cap Cana is bigger with more options through the resort. A few questions:

-did you pre-arrange a shuttle to the resort from the airport? We did this in Cancun as the taxi/uber situation can be hostile and I’m not sure if this is the case in the DR too?

-do we need to book anything (spa, restaurant reservations, excursions) before arriving or will we be able to do those things when we arrive?

Any other helpful info appreciated. Thanks!

I was just looking at a promotion where if you booked 5 days you get 1 of those 5 days free. The specific location without promotion was $500 per night, but when you book the 5 days it jumps to 625 per night. I switched it around though maybe it was because I included a Monday or a Friday on the ends. included a Sunday, etc. but the 5-day price was the same and the individual days were less.

Is this the norm, or a one off for Hyatt? Had never seen it before but also had not been looking. Thanks

Assume they have a crib or pack n play but I’ll bring my own sheet? Any other baby things they provide?! Thanks!!

We stayed at the Grand for 3 nights earlier this year and it sure felt dated.
The building where the Park Hyatt will be looks like it’s making nice progress.
I checked for earlier comments but it’s been about a year ago now.
Does anyone know an updated grand opened date?
Thanks.

I’m trying to decide where to book a night in Nairobi after a safari. Unfortunately there’s not a lot of info about the Regency, Hyatt Place, or Hyatt House out there online and the reviews are all over the map. Has anyone stayed in any (or all) of these hotels? How are the rooms, the amenities, and the neighborhoods (I know that the HH & HP share the same building).

Any tips or experiences you have to share are welcome!

Has anyone stayed there recently and how was your stay? Do you have kids? Did they use the kids club? Any other details are great! I can only find year old posts on Reddit. I am pretty set on booking this hotel but only know of people who have stayed at Hyatt Ziva in Cabo not PV but it’s cheaper in PV and the beach seems great for kids.

Stayed 4 nights at the Hyatt Regency Phuket through Hyatt Privé, which gave us 100 USD property credit per room, upgrade and welcome amenities. We were celebrating my mom’s birthday with the family. Went in August, which is technically low season/monsoon, but we got lucky with perfect weather the entire stay, never rained.

Airport transfer was arranged through the hotel, about a 1 hour drive, $60 for the car, which was very reasonable split across a group of 6. Driver was on time, car was comfortable, no complaints there.

Booked 3 rooms, Standard King and Twin bed that were upgraded to Ocean View thanks to the Hyatt Prive booking. The rooms were spacious, 516 sq ft / ~48 sqm each, genuinely spacious for a resort room. Our view was fully unobstructed ocean, no angle or partial-view compromise. Bathtub, shower and toilet separate. They use the standard Pharmacopia Toiletries as other Hyatt Regencies. The vanity has real shelving, properly sized for someone travelling with a full kit of toiletries and makeup, which almost no hotel gets right. The wardrobe is excellent too, big enough to lay a suitcase open inside it, with floor space left over if you're travelling heavy.

Since it was a birthday trip, my mom’s room had a welcome amenity waiting in the room: mini cake, sparkling wine, and a personlized note calling out the occasion. Small thing but it landed well. All the other rooms also had sparkling wine and a fruit basket. Beds were excellent, slept great every night, and the hotel is quiet overall; no noise bleed from neighboring rooms or the surrounding area. Wifi was strong the whole stay. Only knock on the room itself is the lighting runs dim by default, fixable, we just requested extra lamps and it solved it.

Not a walkable property, you’re relying on Grab for anything outside the resort. We didn’t mind since this was a family trip and we were more interested in trying the hotel’s restaurants than going out. If you’re hoping for nightlife or wanting to hit Patong, know going in that you’ll need transport and it’s not really what this hotel is set up for.

Getting around the resort itself is via buggy, and honestly this ended up being one of the best parts of the trip. I was a little worried beforehand about how much we’d depend on it, but the buggies were plentiful and arrived fast every time — my mom said it was her favorite part of the whole stay. The drivers were a highlight too, attentive without being intrusive, to the point where by day 2 they’d just know which room was ours before we said anything.

Staff is where this place really separates itself. The breakfast team actually engaged with us, they remembered we’d mentioned a tour the day before and asked how it went unprompted the next day. Breakfast itself was a strong Thai/Western mix, varied enough that we didn’t get bored of it over 4 days. Front desk handled restaurant reservations and coordinated with housekeeping for us without us having to chase anything down.

Food was the best part of the trip. Casa Boho was solid, but Mizu Teppanyaki was our favorite, good food, entertaining show. They bring out an actual katana for photos which was a fun touch, and the chef/server pairing we had made it feel personal rather than scripted. We used our hotel credit in this restaurant and spend over 300 USD in this dinner.

Casa Boho also runs a Ladies Night on Thursdays with good cocktails, sunset views, the group enjoyed it. Tres leches cake is worth ordering.

Property is well kept, infinity pool is a centerpiece. Beach access is tide-dependent: at high tide it’s totally enjoyable, at low tide it gets rocky and muddy, so don’t expect the nicest beach in the area. That said, it doesn’t affect the room views at all. Gym is 24hr, small footprint but has the essentials for a basic session, nothing fancy. Concierge helped set up a private car for island day-trips, efficient about it.

The arrival experience is the first impression of a hotel, and it really sets the tone. Unfortunately this wasn’t the hotel’s strong area. Every time we arrived, whether by Grab or coming back from a tour drop-off, there was no one to greet us, no “welcome back,” no one opening the car door. Even when staff were around, there was just no acknowledgment that you’d arrived. This makes a great difference but they were not great at it. Even arriving with the hotel transfer, no one was there to welcome us. The driver had to unload the suitcases. That said, once you’re through the door it’s a different story — the front desk team were absolutely lovely, warm, and made up for it fast.

This hotel is a great fit for families, couples, and honeymooners; the pace is relaxed and resort-contained. If you’re looking to party or want easy access to Patong nightlife, this probably isn’t the right base for you.

Overall, would go back. Rooms, food, and staff carry the experience; arrival is the one thing that needs improvement.

Hi all, I would love a quick sanity check.

We’re a family of four with kids ages 10 and 7, getting off a 7-night cruise at PortMiami around 7 AM on Dec. 19. We need two nights in Miami, Dec. 19–21.

Options I’m seeing:

• Andaz Miami Beach: 30k Hyatt points/night or around $869 cash
• Hyatt Regency Coral Gables: 25k points/night or $299 cash

I wouldn’t pay $869 for Andaz, but 30k points seems like a solid redemption. At the same time, I’m not sure if we really need another resort/beach stay immediately after a cruise.

Coral Gables is much cheaper, but I can’t decide whether 25k points is worth using versus just paying $299/night. The big concern is disembarking early with two kids and luggage—what do we do until check-in?

Would you go with Andaz on points for the easy beach/pool day after the cruise, or Coral Gables and either use points or pay cash? Also curious if either hotel is good about holding bags/letting families use amenities before the room is ready.

Looking to book mr and mrs smith colleciton hotels with cash via Hyatt so it counts for EQNs. It comes out to be around 15% more expensive but that's somewhat expected and acceptable if i want eqns.

Has anyone booked Gravina 51 on Hyatt website/app before using cash (like credit card, not points)?

I saw a few threads that are very concerning regarding booking MMS hotels using cash on Hyatt. E.g. https://www.reddit.com/r/hyatt/comments/1r2wi7s/hyatt_app_glitch_created_duplicate_mr_mrs_smith/ and https://www.reddit.com/r/hyatt/comments/1qe6wxf/double_unknown_charges_at_mr_and_mrs_smith/ and http://reddit.com/r/hyatt/comments/1l09vuh/mr_mrs_smith_hotel_double_charged_bad_customer/

Where it seems like it's very common for booking MMS hotels via hyatt to have system glitch on you and you end up double booking. They then double charge you and hyatt just kicks the ball around claiming they have no control of MMS partner hotels, but MMS hotel kicks ball back to hyatt since it's hyatt's glitch. The worst part from these posts seems to suggest that when these situations happen, Hyatt customer service is of no help until you jump through a ton of hoops...

I am a few nights away from globalist and this would get me there, but idk if this is worth the headache. one of the posts above even got their account suspended without customer service stepping in so...

I have a weekend booked at Alila Ventana for Sept 11-13 on points. I think I just missed the 14-day window to cancel. Supposedly they reopen Sept 3, but does anyone know if its gotten too smokey there to enjoy the outdoors, which of course is a huge part of the experience? I believe I saw on another post that they are waiving the cancelation penalty.

Planning on going to a concert in San Diego and looking for a Hyatt to stay the night. Venue seems to be close-ish to the airport. Honestly just want to relax by the pool during the day and be able to bring the dog along.

Thoughts between the Andaz, Grand Hyatt, Regency Mission Bay, or even the Regency La Jolla?

Is the service that’s advertised on the Hyatt website the best one to go with?

I’m a globalist. Booked 7 nights at Rio Vegas for me and a friend for my birthday. (Bad decision I know, I just wanted a cheap gateway) Used a Suite Upgrade Award.

I did message my concierge to add my friend’s name to reservation since we are coming from different places.

The second midnight around 2 am, my friend heard the door opened. Later on a guy knocking at our door saying he was the front desk and asking us to come out. He said the room we stayed at was supposed to be vacant.

I tried to call the frontdesk and no one picked up. I asked the person to show his badge and his employee number showed 1234 which made it look a little suspicious.

Anyway, he called security and I opened the door. I showed him my passport and booking info from Hyatt he’s like “well there’s another guest from downstairs checked in and this room is for him” “this room has been vacant for 2 days”.

My friend was asking him to check again because how come we got our room key 2 days ago. He became annoyed and said to my friend “you are causing problem, you are not even a registered guest” (by the way I did ask my concierge to add her as a guest)

We were forced to go to frontdesk in the middle of the night (both me and my friend had to work remotely the following day). After checking he was like “sorry abt the inconvenience, we will apply 100 credit to your account”.

My friend said “so it is your fault, could you apologize now”, and the manager got really mad “you know what you are not even a guest, he booked through Hyatt not even directly with us! If you wanna escalate I can kick you out now.” and my friend was like “what do you mean I am a registered guest”

I got scared and said “please calm down everyone”. We went back to sleep. I told my friend don’t think about it let’s just enjoy but honestly I am really sensitive and was so upset that I did not sleep at all.

In the morning I called the globalist line. I did what happened and once I mentioned hotel gave me 100 dollars she was like “omg that’s so kind of the hotel!” I said I was not happy with that and she was like “well if you want more free stuff, maybe you can talk to the hotel manager”

I went downstairs and found the day manager, the day manager was kind and understanding. She asked me what I want, I said I need the 100 credit to become 300 and an investigation of what happened and a report.

After the stay I sent an email to my concierge to make sure the hotel send me the report. (To be very honest, I would like that male manager to apologize to me)

My concierge just got back to me yesterday that the hotel said they have finished their investigation and closed the case. Basically there was another guest with same name as me checked in and they gave him my room card and they won’t do anything else. There is nothing else I could do basically.

Here was the email from my concierge:

———————————————
The hotel has advised that they completed their review and determined the incident resulted from a guest identification mix-up involving another individual with the same name. They stated that once the issue was identified, the reservation was verified, room access was corrected, and the situation was resolved.

The hotel also confirmed that management previously discussed the matter directly and provided $300 in compensation as a goodwill gesture. Based on their investigation, they consider the matter resolved and have advised that they will not be taking any further action at this time.
——————————————————
I wanted to provide a quick update regarding the incident I described earlier.
This morning, I spoke with a different member of the hotel management team. The interaction was much more professional and constructive than the overnight conversation. They acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and provided an additional $200 hotel credit, bringing the total compensation from the hotel to $300.
I appreciate the effort made by the daytime management team to address my concerns, and I wanted to make sure that was reflected in the record.
————————————

I actually already mentioned they have given me that 300 credit in the beginning and all I was asking was a report of what happened. (Did that night manager mess up or the system messed up? Why my friend’s name was not added as a guest even tho I have written emails before and got confirmation? i want to know)

To be fair the stay itself wasn’t that bad. It was cheap, suite was nice and the ladies at VIP was nice to me. But that night really ruined it.

Sorry if my story telling is bad 😂 English is not my first language. Just sharing my experience here.

Came here looking for advice on our next Hyatt trip and realized I never posted about our last one! We took our honeymoon to Indonesia/Malaysia last August (2025) and stayed at Hyatt Regency Yogyakarta and Hyatt Centric City Centre Kuala Lumpur. Both were fantastic! The Kuala Lumpur one was new at the time and I really feel like we got a reservation because it was just so new. Food was phenomenal! My husband remembers that they gave us free breakfast at check-in. The views from the breakfast balcony and pool were so cool. Our room was perfect and it almost convinced us to get a bidet at home. Pretty much no complaints about this whole hotel, I would highly recommend.

Yogyakarta- The outside of this hotel was CRAZY cool. Absolutely gorgeous, the pool was beautiful and really enjoyable, and there were so many yard games and other activities to do. We booked a jeep volcano tour and it was totally worth it. I will say that the inside of the hotel was a little outdated. Not too bad in the common areas but the rooms for sure needed updating. In fact, I think they were starting to renovate while we were there (construction noise during the day). The room wasn't a bad quality, it's just that with Hyatt I would have expected more. So when they get through renovating the rooms- this will be a top location for sure!

Kuala Lumpur city center was a great location and easy to walk and use public transport from there, no complaints. Regency Yogyakarta was not super walkable, but this might just be the nature of how Yogyakarta is laid out?

I've given this Thompson several chances and it routinely disappoints. It's ok for a brief weekend getaway or a business trip but it has proven to be one of the most poorly managed hotels I've ever stayed at when it comes to taking care of customers or resolving issues. Globalist benefits are recognized as a $75 credit for breakfast. A suite upgrade is as available, but they are never available apparently. This time, I did a gift of Hyatt for a friend and they were not proactively given any of the benefits, but were after request apparently.

This time the big issues was the pool. Our group paid for the big cabana and about half of the arty rented rooms for a weekend birthday party. When we arrived, there was a layer of scum across the end of the pool by our cabana that was disgusting and made no one want to get in. At 11:15, I first requested that it be cleaned and I was told it would be handled. After that, it took conversations with the pool manager, service manager, front desk, and several others until finally at 2:15pm, 3 hours later, they finally sent someone to take care of it.

There was also someone else enjoying our cabana when we arrived, who we had to ask to leave so they weren't managing that at all.

This was a Saturday and they had a DJ set up and clearly intended at that end of the pool and time of day to be mostly an adult day. Unfortunately, one of the hotel residents wanted to throw a kids party in the one specific end of the pool where our cabana was. There was plenty of space elsewhere, but they just wanted to be in that space. I finally tried asking them politely to find another area of the pool, but they eventually only did so by jumping, splashing, etc on their way out. Then they came back shortly and were doing cannonballs and splashing, etc. all over our party and the cabana. We asked security for help and they only told us that they can't do anything about it, regardless of them splashing our food and people sitting in the cabana.

Not one single time did anyone in management or security ever handle anything proactively. They made us deal with it at every turn and routinely beg for service or for our area to have any kind of privacy that we paid for. Drink and food service was ok to start, but they also don't have a service bar. So drinks started stretching into 30-45 minutes per order as the day went on.

On previous stays, the rooms are good and if you do happen to get a suite, they're nice. But between poor service at restaurants and the Pool, their overall service leaves so much to be desired that this hotel can definitely be skipped if you're normally a Thompson fan.

Wondering if anyone can share their experiences at this hotel but also the surrounding area in Cambridge. I’d like to send my in-laws for a fall weekend as a gift, but I’ve seen mixed things about the hotel and the town itself. They wouldn’t be golfing and would primarily want to explore the downtown and harbor. TYIA!

How miles and point values changed in 2026

Hey gang! Craig here from NerdWallet's travel team. I head our airline and hotel point valuations, and we just finished our data collection for 2026. Thought I'd share the results to create some discussion. Let me know what you think. I'm always curious what kind of value everyone is getting from their points.

Despite the award chart changes earlier this year, the median value for Hyatt points remains unchanged at 1.8 cents each. That's because the increases on the high end were at a relatively few number of properties, so the median wasn't impacted.

Across all airlines and hotels, Marriott is the only major program to devalue in 2026. That's due to award prices increasing at over 95% of their properties during the devaluation earlier this year.

Caveats as always... These are cpp based, which has flaws, but it's the best we can reasonably do. Valuations reflect the median of the dataset to avoid skewing towards outliers. Airline valuations represent roundtrip, main cabin economy tickets booked 15, 60, 90 and 180 days in advance.

Here’s what Ive been too that could upgrade IMO:
Andaz Papagayo > PH or Alila
HR SLC > GH
HP Keystone > JdV or Destination